Layer 4 - Religion
Lain is in her room, hunched over a manual and surrounded by tools. Her computer has clearly been worked on recently and has a fan behind it. Her dad is watching her sadly. Lain’s parents are sitting on the couch downstairs. Miho: How did it go? Mika walks over. Mika: Lain’s acting funny. It’s nothing new, but still… Yasuo: No, it’s perfectly normal. Mika: Huh? What’re you talking about? Miho: Mika, watch your tone with your father. Mika walks away. Miho stands up. Miho: Is she right? Yasuo: Yes. A man is running and panting; he looks scared. He runs down a hall and frantically tries to open a door, but the key isn’t going in. Man: Shit! Shit! He drops his keys. Main: Shit! He bends down to pick them up. He looks over and sees a little girl in a pink dress, holding a stuffed dog and smiling. He screams and tries to unlock the door again. Man: What do you want?! What’s going on?! He still can’t get the door open. Man: Shit! Shit! He turns around and the girl is right behind him. Girl: Gotcha. Lain, Reika, Juri, and Arisu are talking before class. Arisu: We have homeroom next hour, right? Is that lucky, or what? Reika: Don’t you think it’s strange that they called a special staff meeting? Arisu: Do you think it’s true, then? Reika: What? Arisu: They say a high school senior committed suicide. Juri: S-Suicide? Arisu: It’s not just at our school, either. Somebody jumped off the roof of their apartment building a while ago, too. Hey, Lain. Lain turns around. Lain: Sorry. What is it? Juri: I guess Lain wouldn’t know anything about it… Lain: The suicide you mean? Reika: You know about that? Arisu: Really? Lain: I’ve just heard a little about it, that’s all. Arisu: Where? Lain: The Wired. Arisu: Right, you must’ve gotten the hang of our new Navi by now. You’ll have to show it to me sometime. Lain: Sure. But I’m modifying it a little right now. Juri: Modifying it? I didn’t know you were into that hacky stuff. Reika: You know, You’ve changed lately. Lain: Really? You think so? Juri: She has? Reika: Yeah. I can’t put my finger on it. Lain, Reika, Arisu, and Juri are walking around downtown and eating. Arisu: So, what sort of rumors have you heard in the Wired? Lain: Well… That it’s some kind of game. Reika: A game? A network game, you mean? Lain: I don’t really know. I don’t play those. But they say that all the dead kids were hooked on it. Juri: Guys sure like that stuff… Arisu: A game, huh? But why? Lain: I… Lain shoves down the rest of her food. Arisu: Hey, don’t wolf down food like that! You’ll choke! Lain: I’m ok. You mind if I go home? Reika: Hey, You don’t need to ask our permission or anything. Juri: You have plans? Lain: I want to get home and put my Navi back together. It’s still in bits and pieces. Juri: You prefer a machine to your friends, huh? Arisu: Cut it out, Juri! Don’t talk like that! Juri: I’m not accusing her of anything. Arisu: Once you’re done, you’ll have to show us, Lain. Lain: Sure. Sorry. Lain runs off. Arisu: She has changed. A little girl in a pink dress bumps into Arisu and drops her dog. Arisu: I’m sorry! Arisu picks up the dog and hands it back to the girl. Girl: No, it was my fault. The girl runs back over to her mom. Girl: Sorry! They wave goodbye. Lain is in her room, her computer put back together. Lain: Log in. Lain. Navi: Authorized. Lain: Mail. Navi: Voice mail. Man’s Voice coming from the computer: Hello, Lain. I couldn’t figure out the answer to your question by myself, so I asked a colleague at the lab about it. If that really is a Psyche processor that you have, then you should probably set the oscillation to “variable” like you thought. Navi motherboards are designed to work with just about anything, but you might run into some glitches. Good luck. If you need anything else, just ask. Lain is at Cyberia. Lain: JJ! JJ: Yeah? Lain: You know anything about the that net game all the kids are playing? JJ: Oh, you mean Phantoma? Forget about it. An adult like you wouldn’t be into that. Right, Lain? JJ turns around and no one is there. JJ: No way…Are, my ears playing tricks on me already? A young boy is running on a rooftop. Boy: I… I quit already! Leave me out of it! He falls down stairs as he’s running. He turns around and sees a glowing Lain walking towards him. where lain is walking, the world around her is brown, and looks like a maze. The boy gets up and starts running again. The space Lain is walking He pulls out a phone and smashes it on the ground. Everything turns into the brown maze. Boy: This isn’t the Wired! The boy is running through the maze, it’s very dark. Lain’s voice: Wait, don’t run. The boy enters an open space in the maze. Boy: Who are you?! Are you a PK, too? Help me! Lain’s voice: I can’t go where you are. Boy: What’s going on?! Glowing hands surround one of the exits. Boy: Stop screwing around! He turns around and sees a little girl. The boy forms a gun with his hands. Boy: Bullet charge! Gauge 5! Die! He shoots the girl as she’s rushing towards him. Boy: Die! Die! Die! Die! The Girl falls to the ground and the boy keeps shooting her until he runs out of bullets. Back on the rooftop, a small body is wrapped in a sheet, the boy is sitting and staring at it. A glowing Lain is standing on the other side of the body, watching him. Boy: I was scared, that’s all.I didn’t know it was just a little girl. It’s not my fault. I didn’t even know her. Phantoma is a game with a dedicated client application that lets you fight in the wired. I downloaded the app from an illegal server to play it a little while ago. For us, it had a dungeon-style action game interface, but I guess it had somehow gotten linked to a tag game played by kindergartners. Lain is in her room, Phantoma is loading on her computer. Navi: You have mail. Lain: Open it. Man’s voice through the computer: Hey, Lain. I didn’t know you were into stuff like Phantoma. I checked around, but didn’t find out much. Anyway, the basic game isn’t all that unusual in the Wired, so my guess is that they just modified that. The problem is the part that lets the programs connect to each other. It looks like there’s like some kind of weird hole in the protocol. My buddies and I think that this may be the work of the Knights, too. Lain: Knights… Yasuo walks into Lain’s doorway. Yasuo: Lain? looks like you and the Wired are getting along just fine now. Lain: Yeah. Yasuo: Let me give you one little warning. Lain: Huh? Yasuo: When it’s all said and done, the Wired is just a medium for communication and the transfer of information. You mustn't confuse it with the real world. Do you understand what I’m warning you about? Lain smiles. Lain: You’re wrong. Yasuo: Huh? Lain: The border between the two isn’t all that clear. I’ll be able to enter it soon. Full range. Full motion. I’ll translate myself into it. Yasuo: Even with a top of the line civilian Navi you couldn’t… Lain: I can do it. I’ve modified mine. Yasuo: A Psyche processor, huh? But… Lain: Don’t worry. I’m still me. Yasuo: Sometimes I wonder. Yasuo walks out. --I waited for you for hours! Why? Why didn’t you come?! -- Damn you! Damn you! Damn you! -- This mail is a message of happiness! By receiving this, you’ll be happier than anyone else! -- In other words, the Knights do not physically exist, but are rather thought itself that occurs within the Wired. They can be thought of as a religion that is spreading through the Wired. -- Would you go out with me? If you already have a boyfriend, I apologize. If you love him, I’ll give up on you. But if… -- Please browse code: J946@5488AA97464. -- Whoever gets this mail, please help me, whoever you are. You may not believe this, but I’m always being followed. -- Lain, why won’t you come here? A red light grazes Lain’s face. She gets up from her desk and looks out the window. Two men in black suits are standing below her window, looking up at her. Their eyepieces have red lights on them. Lain: Go away. The men don’t move. Lain: Go away! A strong wind blows suddenly and the men’s eyepieces burst. The men quickly drive away. Navi: Intruder interrupted.